130 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
noon the boats start for a place in the river where fishing will 
begin, the cormorants stowed away in pairs in large, circular 
bamboo baskets. The fishing grounds cover many miles, and 
successive sections of the river are fished nightly, some stretches 

CHIEF OF THE CORMORANT FISHERMEN. 
of several thousand yards being set aside as imperial preserves 
where no fishing is permitted. 
Each boat has a crew of four men and a complement of six- 
teen cormorants. As soon as darkness prevails, a blazing fire of 
pine wood is kindled in the iron basket over-hanging the bow of 
the boat. The birds are dropped overboard and the boats drift 
